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Colonial Pipeline to restart Sunday

Several motorists were filling up their tanks Nov. 2 at the Hot Spot on New Leicester Highway. A pipeline explosion in northern Alabama on Monday caused officials to shut down Line 1 of the Colonial Pipeline while repairs are conducted.(Photo: Abigail Margulis/amargulis@citizen-times.com)Buy Photo

The company shut down two main pipelines after the explosion, which killed one worker and injured five others. The company restarted Line 2, which transports diesel, jet fuel and other products, early Tuesday morning.

"Colonial's team on-site is constantly reassessing our timeline for restoration of service on Line 1. Based upon the newest information Colonial has, we now project a restart of Line 1 for Sunday afternoon," the company said in a statement Thursday night.

While the pipeline has been shut down, the governors of Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina issued executive orders waiving regulations for commercial truck drivers transporting motor fuel in their states.

He signed Executive Order 112 to temporarily suspend vehicle size and weight restrictions for trucks carrying gasoline. It also waives limits on the number of hours drivers of those trucks can be on the road. With the pipeline down, it’s expected that more fuel will have to arrive in the state by truck.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has waived the federal reformulated gasoline requirements under the Clean Air Act for certain markets serviced by Colonial, and its shippers continue to make contingency plans to deliver gasoline to their customers.

Asheville has not seen as big of an impact as it experienced during the September shut down of the same pipeline, which runs from Houston to New York, traveling through Alabama and Georgia as well as South Carolina and North Carolina as it snakes through Charlotte and Greensboro.

Several area gas stations also reported seeing few or no shortages this week. Gas prices remained stable at $2.26 per gallon, which was down from a week ago when prices were $2.27 for a gallon of regular gasoline, according to GasBuddy.